Photo via MPD

More than two years after fatally stabbing a man on a Metro train, 21-year-old Jasper Spires pleaded guilty on Thursday to first-degree murder while armed in D.C. Superior Court.

The plea, which the court must approve, would send Spires to prison for 30 to 35 years for killing 24-year-old Kevin Sutherland, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.

The incident took place aboard a Red Line train around 1 p.m. on Independence Day in 2015. Metro camera footage captured Spires and Sutherland, who did not know each other, getting on a train at Rhode Island Avenue station.

Spires approached Sutherland, snatched away his phone, and began stabbing him in his abdomen, back, sides, and arms, according to the release. Spires continued to stab Sutherland as he fell to the floor among nearly a dozen witnesses. Spires also kicked the American University graduate and threw his phone back, which struck him in the head.

Before getting off the train at the NoMa-Gallaudet station, Spires robbed two other people on the train, according to the release. He was arrested two days later and has been in D.C. jail and St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric facility since then.

An autopsy showed that Sutherland, who was pronounced dead at the scene, sustained 19 stab wounds and 16 cutting wounds. A year after his death, Metro displayed Sutherland’s photos of D.C. landmarks at NoMa-Gallaudet station.

His parents told The Washington Post that the guilty plea has provided some relief, but they still don’t have any details as to why Spires killed their son. After several mental evaluations, psychiatrists determined that he did suffer from a mental illness, but it wasn’t severe enough to cause the violent attack.

“Everyone loved Kevin. He just had that type of personality where everyone just loved him,” Sutherland’s father told The Post, of his only child.

Spires’ sentencing is scheduled for January 12.